I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrodeposition process for the preparation of lead-zirconium-titanium film and powder for use in electronic applications and in the formation of lead-zirconium-titanium oxide.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Lead-zirconium-titanium (PZT) powders and films have a significant capability for employment in a myriad of electronic applications and devices. Non-limiting examples of possible direct uses of PZT powder include surface-acoustic wave (SAW) delay lines, pyroelectric sensors, electro-optic displays, ferroelectric field-effect transistors, high-value capacitors, non-volatile memory field-effect transistors, infrared sensors, ultrasonic sensors and optical switches.
Present preparation techniques for the production of PZT powders involve traditional chemical reactions to isolate components, coupled with physical mixing of the component metals. Maintaining product uniformity of resulting powders so prepared is extremely difficult if not realistically impossible. It is therefore apparent, in view of the potential utilities of PZT powders as well as PZT films, that a need is present for an efficient and uniformly productive process for the preparation of PZT films and powders through electrodeposition techniques that deposit all of the precursor components simultaneously while providing atomic-scale mixing that reduces reaction time to the order of minutes to obtain desired phase development.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a process employing electrodeposition for the production of reactive atomically mixed PZT powder.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a process employing electrodeposition for the preparation of reactive atomically mixed PZT film.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electrodeposition process wherein PZT powders so produced are recovered either from the electrode-substrate by ultrasonic vibration, for example, or from the bath as a precipitate which has peeled from the electrode-substrate.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a PZT powder through an electrodeposition process and thereafter convert the powder to a PZT oxide powder.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a PZT film through an electrodeposition process and thereafter convert the film to a PZT oxide film.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent throughout the description of the invention which now follows.